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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



July 1 



satisfaction wooden cell cups — little blocks 

 of wood with a X-inch hole bored down into 

 them, say fi inch deep. These are then 

 filled with a piece of soft wax. A cell- 

 forming- stick of the proper size, having a 

 rounded end, is then punched down into 

 this little ball of wax in the hole in the 

 block. A little twisting- and working will 

 form a very nice cell cup. 



These wooden cups are then to be graft- 

 ed and secured to any cell-bar. A nail is 

 run through the wooden block lengthwise 

 so the point just sticks through, say ^\ or 

 Yi of an inch. When the cup is grafted, 

 this sharp point is shoved up into the cell- 

 bar, where it sticks. 



The beauty of these wooden cups is that 

 they can be handled like so many clothes- 

 pins. The wooden end can be jammed into 

 a comb, or it can be used to block up a 

 wire-cloth cylindrical cage or a cage made 

 of perforated zinc, depending on whether 

 we want the bees to have access to the 

 queen or not after she hatches from the cell. 



A little later on we will give further il- 

 lustrations showing our present modus op- 

 erandi, which differs somewhat in general 

 details from those herewith presented. 



OPEN-AIR FEEDING FOR BEES. 



BY A. I. ROOT. 



A few days ago, while in the Traverse 

 region, a neighbor bee-keeper, Mr. James 

 Smith, of Turtle Lake, paid me a visit. He 

 has kept bees for only two or three years; 

 in fact, he is almost a beginner. A neigh- 

 bor of his, an old bee-keeper, told him this 

 spring that he could stimulate his bees to 

 raising brood and building up much faster 

 by open-air feeding. He had a lot of part- 

 ly filled combs, and by the advice of this 

 veteran he hung them out in the open air to 

 let the bees uncap the honey and carry it to 

 their hives. Of course, this soon made a 

 row. But his instructor told him he could 

 not stop after he had once commenced ; that if 

 the bees got to robbing each other he must 

 put out still more honey to keep them busy. 

 After he had pushed ahead on this line un- 

 til he had lost 18 colonies out of about 75, 

 he began to be suspicious that the instruc- 

 tions he had been following were rather bad. 

 He had been reading Gleanings, and had 

 seen what was said there about open-air 

 feeding. I asked him if he had seen 

 Ernest's recent caution. He said he 

 had. Now, ye veterans and others, I wish 

 to make a little protest. There may be 

 times and circumstances when an old hand 



can hang out combs in the open air, espe- 

 cially if he stays right there to watch things 

 and look out; but I do think it is very un- 

 wise, not to use a stronger term, to advise 

 or even suggest that beginners, or perhaps 

 we might say the average bee-keeper, should 

 be told to put honey out of doors for the bees 

 to take care of, without making trouble. 

 When Gleanings was started I said on its 

 pages, and also in the ABC book, that the 

 bee-keeper should be exceedingly careful 

 about leaving honey exposed or doing any 

 thing that would incite robbing, or get his 

 bees in a notion to get honey from any other 

 source than the flowers. When the bees in 

 an apiary get a mania for robbing it is a 

 hard matter to get them over it. If they 

 learn it in the fall I have good reason to be- 

 lieve they will commence the same thing in 

 the spring; and when they once get a going, 

 it is not alone the weak and queenless colo- 

 nies, but those that are in very fair order, 

 and doing well, that will sometimes be 

 wiped out in just a few hours. Another 

 thing, this young friend had stores sealed 

 up in the combs, ready to put in any hive 

 that needed feeding; and there is certainly 

 no better or safer way to feed in the world 

 than to give a colony combs of sealed stores. 

 From experiments I have made, I believe 

 that nearly if not quite half of the honey 

 will be lost where the bees uncap it in the 

 open air and carry it to their hives and seal 

 it up again. 



BEE-STINGS. 

 Their Rational Treatment. 



BY D. A. M'LEAN. 



The old and well-worn adage of a small 

 amount of prevention being worth a much 

 larger amount of cure would be peculiarly 

 applicable in considering the above sub- 

 ject if it were not that, unfortunately, our 

 "prevention " does not always prevent, and 

 we are obliged to resort to the " cure " after 

 all. The best management of bee-stings is, 

 no doubt, to so manage as not to receive 

 them; but, as all bee-keepers know, this is 

 not practicable, and all who handle bees ex- 

 pect to receive more or less stings. 



While to many, and probably the greater 

 number, this is a matter of indifference, to 

 a good many, and especially the younger 

 members of the fraternity, it is quite a se- 

 rious matter, and one of the principal ob- 

 stacles or objections to an otherwise ex- 

 tremely pleasant occupation. It is, then, 

 perhaps, worth while to see if we can not 

 discover some more certain relief for the 

 pain of the stings, and some more success- 

 ful method of treating them, than has so 

 far been recommended. All remedies for 

 relief from the pain of bee-stings, so far as 

 I know, consist in the application of some 

 supposed antidote to the poison, or of agents 

 having some other supposed action, imme- 

 diately over the wound made by the sting. 

 Now, I wish to indorse emphatically what 



